This invention relates to printing statements using a postage meter and in particular to printing statements of mailing or other reports having dimensions larger than can be accommodated by a printing device of a postage meter.
Known postage meters are provided with a printer that is operated to print postal indicia on mail pieces in order to provide evidence that accounting for payment of postage charges in respect of the mail pieces has been carried out. In one kind of postage meter, the printer is a digital printer having a line of printing elements and, while the mail piece is held static in the postage meter, the print head is caused to traverse a print receiving area of the mail piece in which the postal indicium is to be printed. The line of printing elements extends in a direction transverse to the direction of traverse of the print head. The line of printing elements extends in the direction of the height of the imprint and hence the maximum height of any imprint printed by the printer is determined by the length of the line of printing elements. The required height of the postal indicia printed on the mail pieces is approximately 1 inch and the printer provided in the postage meter is capable only of printing an imprint having a height corresponding to that of the postal indicia. The direction of traverse of the print head corresponds to the width of the imprint and hence the maximum width of imprint that can be printer by the printer is determined by the extent of traverse of the print head. It is desirable that the postage meter is of compact construction and hence it desired that the extent of traverse of the print is only sufficient to enable printing of a postal indicium and, when desired, a slogan alongside the postal indicium.
When the postage meter is used for franking mail pieces a postal authority that is to handle the franked mail pieces may require the provision by the user of the postage meter of statements or reports in respect of a batch of mail or relating to a period of operation of the postage meter. The information required for such reports is stored in memory of the postage meter and it would be convenient to use the printer of the postage meter to print the reports. However such reports usually require the printing of a quantity of information that cannot be contained within an area having the limited operational printing area, corresponding to a postal inidiicum and slogan, of the printer of the postage meter.
A further difficulty in using the postage meter printer to print reports arises because operation of the printer needs to be initiated by a mail sensor which, when the postage meter is used for printing postal indicia on mail pieces, is activated by correctly locating a mail piece in the postage meter to receive a postal indicium imprint. The mail sensor includes an element that needs to be displaced by insertion of the mail piece into the required correct location in the postage meter. Mail pieces have sufficient rigidity to displace the element of the sensor but a sheet of relatively lightweight paper on which it is desired to print a report may have insufficient rigidity to displace the element of the sensor to activate the sensor.